Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Post Christmas Wrap-Up

Apologies for no entry yesterday, and an advance apology for what will probably be sporadic posting in the next few days as I will be up and down the California coast.

Instead of being affixed to my laptop, as I usually am, I enjoyed Christmas yesterday with a full house. Since we go to Christmas mass, have the big dinner, and open of presents all on Christmas Eve, Christmas day is always the big day of lounging. In addition to finally beating my Uncle in Trivial Pursuit, playing with my cousins and their new toys, and eating leftovers, I watched more movies yesterday than I have in the past 4 months combined.

For those of you on break and like renting movies, here are my 2 cents to guide you in your selection. I warn you that I am by no means a "movie buff" (hence, seeing so few movies in the past few months).

Geogia Rule: I thought this would be one of those multi-generational 'chick flick' movies, but it was much darker than I expected. The movie was not as bad as the critics made it out to be, but perhaps I thought the story was interesting because the 'wild child' character Lindsey Lohan portrayed was such a mirror to her real life. I just wanted to know what was going through Lindsey's mind as she played a character with such self-destructive behavior. (Kristina Rating: B)

Nanny Diaries: Cliched movie, but cute movie once again in the "chick flick" category. Laura Linney was good and there was some creative parts of the movie (mainly, the narration modeled after an anthropological study), but overall a predictable type of movie is mindlessly entertaining. (Kristina Rating: B)Breach: I was skeptical when my Aunt rented this, but it turned out to be a really good movie based on the true-life story of FBI agent, Robert Hanssen, who was leaking information to the Soviet Union/Russia. Chris Cooper did an amazing job, as did Laura Linney (again) and Dennis Haysbert. The only thing that would have made this better would be to swap out Ryan Phillipe with a stronger actor. I especially liked the movie because of all the DC footage; makes me wonder what other kind of crazy stuff goes on in the District without me knowing it. I also am biased towards movie that are based on true-life stories. (Kristina Rating: A)

I also watched half of Hairspray and nodded in and out of sleep during Shrek 3, so I will not give me "reviews." Finally, I watched the French movie La Mome (English Title: La Vie en Rose) with my parents. I did fall asleep during part of the movie; though the movie was long I attribute my movie insomnia to my short attention span and late night viewing. From what I saw, it was a good but tragic movie based on the life of French singer Edith Piaf.